First artisanal fisheries co-management plan in Seychelles to be officially signed by the Minister of Investment, Natural Resources and Industry this Friday

The implementing body, the Praslin Fisheries Co-management Coordination Committee (PFCCC) will be presented with monitoring and surveillance equipments from GOS-UNDP-GEF

The first Fisheries Co-management Plan for Seychelles has been developed on Praslin for the artisanal trap and line fishing and will be officially signed by the Minister of Investment, Natural Resources and Industry and the Chairman of the Praslin Fisheries Co-management Coordination Committee (PFCCC) on Friday 8 November, 2013.

The signing ceremony, which concludes the development of this management mechanism for artisanal fisheries on Praslin, will be held at the Anglican Church Hall, Grand Anse Praslin, from 10 am.

The plan was developed jointly between Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), the fishers and other stakeholders, under the UNDP-GEF project “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Management into Production Sector Activities”. The project is being implemented under the GOS-UNDP-GEF Programme Coordination Unit (PCU).

The plan is based on a proposal to declare a Special Co-managed Area around the islands of Praslin and La Digue in which all resource users (fishers and other stakeholders) will be required to abide by the management rules of the plan. The plan will be implemented by the PFCCC with the support of the Praslin Fishers Association (PFA), Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) and other stakeholders.

This is the first such plan in Seychelles and an important step towards the development of a Blue Economy for the country.

The signing of the plan will be followed by the handover of monitoring and surveillance equipments provided by GOS-UNDP-GEF to the PFCCC chairman by the Programme Officer of the United Nations Development Programme, Roland Alcindor.